La Madre Tonantsin

 Posted by on November 27, 2012
Nov 272012
 

3495 16th Between Sanchez and Dehon
Castro District

Colette Crutcher is a multi discipline artist. Her career began with painting and printmaking, but now covers a broad spectrum, from very large to very small, from public to intensely personal, from abstract to figurative, and across a range of media: painting and drawing, collage, assemblage, paper mache, concrete, ceramic and mosaics.

According to Collete’s website: This mural is a renovation of La Madre Tonantsin, a similar mural I painted there in 1991. The original fence was rotting, and along with it the mural. A grassroots fundraising campaign, helped by a grant from Precita Eyes, enabled me to create this new version. Rather than sticking to paint alone, I incorporated a variety of semi-sculptural media. (The mural was done in 1998)

The piece was made for the headquarters of the Instituto Pro Musica, an organization dedicated to the performance of music old and new from Spain and Latin America. I sing with their choral group, Coro Hispano de San Francisco, and used my artwork to express feelings evoked by this powerful musical heritage. The goddess represented is Tonantsin, the mother of the Aztec gods. I am not particularly well-versed in pre-Columbian religious practices; I just used the theme as a springboard for my imagination.

Playthings of the Wind

 Posted by on November 24, 2012
Nov 242012
 

1199 Mason at Washington
Chinatown
Betty Ong Chinese Recreation Center

*

Colette Crutcher’s mosaic mural, titled Playthings of the Wind, located in the playground of the new center, honors China’s 2000-year tradition of kite making. The mural depicts a young child, in traditional dress, holding a string attached to a butterfly kite, which is joined among the swirling clouds and sun by two other kites in the form of a “flying lizard” and bat. The mural continues onto an adjacent wall with a depiction of a dragon kite. Using a combination of stained glass, mirror, broken fragments of Chinese cookery and commercial and handmade tiles, Crutcher captures the kites’ simple, yet fanciful, geometric forms that make it possible for them to defy gravity.

*

*

*

*

Western Addition – Athletics at Hamilton Rec Center

 Posted by on June 22, 2012
Jun 222012
 
Western Addition
Steiner and Post Streets
Hamilton Rec Center
Athletics by Mary Erkenbrack – Ceramic Tile 1955
This glazed ceramic tile mural is of male figures engaged in athletic activities. This tile mural sits between two painted murals names Blues Evolution I and Blues Evolution II
.
This tile mural has been on the walls of the rec center since it opened.
Mary Erkenbrack was born in Seattle, Washington on Nov. 30, 1910, Erckenbrack was raised in Rio De Janeiro, London, and Paris as her father, a shipping commissioner, moved about. While in France she studied art in Le Havre at Pension Jeanne d’Arc.
During 1933-35 her married name was Hennessy.   In 1935 she settled in San Francisco and became active in the North Beach art scene.  She soon established Mary E’s Mud Shop and was kept busy fulfilling ceramic orders for Gump’s, Marshall Fields and others.

 

Western Addition – World Walls for Peace

 Posted by on April 13, 2012
Apr 132012
 
Western Addition
Page and Buchanan Street
*
In 1999, with consultation and training from the organization, World Walls for Peace, residents of the Western Addition became participants in a Peace Empowerment Process. Volunteers taught a program in two elementary schools and over fifty community based organizations, focusing on tolerance, understanding, and non-violence. Participants learned ways to develop positive solutions to resolving conflicts and defusing anger. The project was developed and implemented by residents for residents—a true community endeavor.
As part of their participation, people of all ages painted over 1,800 tiles on the theme of peace, to be installed on a retaining wall that encircles Daniel Koshland Park on Page and Buchanan Streets in San Francisco.

By May 2007, all the tiles were painted, fired, organized, labeled, and photographed; the SF Arts Commission had approved the project; the retaining wall had been resurfaced and repaired in preparation for tiling.  This is a photograph of the long side of the park as well as the interior stairwell.

 Justine Tatarsky was the lead artist on the project, her work is really quite beautiful, you will recognize hers not only for the refinement but also the initials TOT on her work.

There is a brass plaque on the wall that reads:

This Peace Wall celebrates our community’s commitment to PEACE, and is dedicated to families that have lost children to violence in the Western Addition.
This Peace Wall stands to remind us that we have the power to be creative and heal ourselves and our community.  We are all artists.  May we find inspiration and strength in these messages of love.
*
error: Content is protected !!